Brock Beauchamp

I consider moving Buxton a rebuild. Maeda and Donaldson are retooling *IF* they bring back high minors prospects, as they did with Berrios. Both Kenta and Josh are likely on the bad side of their contracts after this season, moving them while they're still playing well is probably efficient asset management.

Yeah, but quite a bit has changed since those rankings came out. Martin may have shoulder issues but he's also posting an .800 OPS in the high minors (AA). Lewis is still injured.

And now Maeda is being dangled?

Martin is instantly the Twins best prospect by a solid margin given the injury to Lewis.

Both players are in AA so they're relatively close to MLB.

Given the number of injuries this season, any person with a functioning arm can find a spot in the minors right now.

Post any video, analysis, or information you have on either player here. Martin is currently a centerfielder/shortstop at AA. Woods Richardson is a right-handed starting pitcher, also at AA. Austin Martin: Register Batting Year Age AgeDif Tm Lg Lev Aff G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB 2018 19 -1.7 Vanderbilt SEC NCAA 59 273 222 44 75 14 0 1 19 22 8 35 46 .338 .452 .414 .866 92 2 12 3 1 2018 19 -1.4 Springfield PROS Smr 4 16 14 2 5 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 5 .357 .375 .357 .732 5 0 0 1 0 2019 20 -0.7 Vanderbilt SEC NCAA 65 323 268 87 105 19 4 10 46 18 5 40 34 .392 .486 .604 1.091 162 6 12 0 3 2020 21 0.3 Vanderbilt SEC NCAA 16 69 53 15 20 6 0 3 11 3 1 10 2 .377 .507 .660 1.168 35 0 5 0 1 2021 22 -2.0 New Hampshire AANE AA TOR 55 250 196 43 55 10 2 2 16 9 3 37 53 .281 .424 .383 .807 75 1 14 0 3 0 Minors (1 season) Minors 55 250 196 43 55 10 2 2 16 9 3 37 53 .281 .424 .383 .807 75 1 14 0 3 0 College (3 seasons) College 140 665 543 146 200 39 4 14 76 43 14 85 82 .368 .474 .532 1.007 289 8 29 3 5 Other (1 season) Other 4 16 14 2 5 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 5 .357 .375 .357 .732 5 0 0 1 0 All Levels (4 Seasons) 199 931 753 191 260 49 6 16 94 52 17 123 140 .345 .459 .490 .949 369 9 43 3 9 0 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 7/30/2021. Simeon Woods Richardson: Register Pitching Year Age AgeDif Tm Lg Lev Aff W L W-L% ERA RA9 G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W 2018172 Teams2 LgsRkNYM101.0001.562.6074200117.1155314026000711.0967.80.52.113.56.50 201817-3.4MetsGULFRkNYM101.0000.001.5952200111.192004015000471.1477.10.03.211.93.75 201817-3.7KingsportAPPYRkNYM004.504.502200006.063310011000241.0009.01.50.016.5 2019182 Teams2 LgsA-A+NYM610.3753.804.3926260000106.296524562401261154321.1258.10.52.010.65.25 201918-4.9DunedinFLORA+TOR32.6002.542.5466000028.11888170290001070.8825.70.32.29.24.14 201918-3.8ColumbiaSALLANYM38.2734.255.062020000078.17844375170971153251.2139.00.62.011.15.71 202120-4.8New HampshireAANEAATOR24.3335.766.551111000045.14233295260671072021.5008.31.05.213.32.58 All Levels (3 Seasons)914.3914.094.7844412001169.115390771254021921127051.2228.10.62.911.64.06 AA (1 season)Minors24.3335.766.551111000045.14233295260671072021.5008.31.05.213.32.58 A+ (1 season)Minors32.6002.542.5466000028.11888170290001070.8825.70.32.29.24.14 A (1 season)Minors38.2734.255.062020000078.17844375170971153251.2139.00.62.011.15.71 Rk (1 season)Minors101.0001.562.6074200117.1155314026000711.0967.80.52.113.56.50 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 7/30/2021.

It's almost as if a guy that can take the mound EVERY fifth day and pitch to an ERA 20% better than league average is valuable or something.

*in horse race announcer voice* AND MY LADY JAY GAINS MOMENTUM AND HAS PAPA PADRE BY A NOSE

I suppose that after the Cruz trade, they may shift the pecking order. That makes sense.

That's a legit observation.

Berrios rumor roundup: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/07/jose-berrios-trade-rumors-twins-padres-yankees-rays-mets-mariners-deadline.html

I'm interested in seeing a lot more of Ober if he can stay healthy. All that time off and the increased velocity intrigues me as a back of the rotation option. Dobnak... I need to see him healthy again before I put him in any plans. Throw Jax in the rotation tomorrow because "why not?" But he's not on the radar for 2022 at this time.

That's the franchise-altering question. Twelve months ago, I would have been quite confident this front office would make the right(ish) decision. Today, not so much.

I hear and understand the injury comments and while it's understandable to think "wow, losing a player for an entire season sure is awful", is it worse than constantly digging into your third or lower depth options because the entire team is slightly banged up? I'll be honest, I don't know, but both can be disastrous for teams. It's how the Twins ended up with Refsnyder in center, who ALSO was injured while playing moderately well. And that was after rotating through Cave, Kirilloff, Garlick... And that was only the OF. The rotation had the same problem. Hell, the entire team had that problem. It's easy to say "well, Kepler only missed 14 games" but that ignores that at the same time, three other OF were also missing games and the Twins were literally starting a shortstop in centerfield. Is it worse to lose a good player and pivot for months/season or is it worse to lose four middling players and scramble like your hair is on fire? I don't know the answer, frankly. Both suck. As for "luck", IMO the best indicator of expected performance is FanGraphs' BaseRuns and the Twins are -5 in the win column according to that metric. And that's *after* gaining a bunch back after winning some one-run and extra inning games. IIRC, through April they had atrocious BaseRuns and pythag underperformance.

Well, no need to add to the Twins infamous pitching pipeline.

Adding Gibson to the mix possibly diminishes teams' willingness to go big on Berríos. I think a team would have to be slightly insane to consider the two equals given Gibson's track history, age, and persistent health concerns, but he's a good second option.

Nothing wrong with that opinion, my stance on whether to trade Berríos is completely dependent on the return. If the Twins can't get more than two top 100 players, one of them a pitcher <12 months from MLB, I don't think I'd trade him.

I don't think Preller really has the option to back down at this point. He has spent the past year pushing most of his chips to the middle of the table. It's possible he says "that's enough" but that doesn't really seem to be his style and it's hard to envision the Padres' window being more open in the near future. Having Berríos for 2022 is likely *very* enticing to him.

I'm not worried about that. There's a zero-ish percent chance Berríos is traded if San Diego isn't including a top prospect. I wonder where the Jays stand in all of this. I haven't seen specifics about them, only that "they're in it". And now is the time to strike for that team, their immediate future looks really good and Ryu isn't growing younger.

What's deflating about it? Scherzer is a rental and I'm still a little shaky why Turner is in the deal at all, as his value drops considerably if he's not at short. Getting back two top 100 guys and a couple of interesting pieces is a pretty reasonable swap, IMO.

Indeed. And Twins fans need to stop pretending this is 1982 and using Rocco Baldelli as the whipping boy for every problem in this organization. He's a cog in the machine. The machine may be broken, we don't know that yet, but the faulty cog isn't Rocco Baldelli. He didn't sign Matt Shoemaker and then tell him to pitch differently.

Except you're talking specifically about pitching, and the Twins pitching was good in 2019 and very good in 2020. And Rocco has virtually nothing to do with the fundamentals or approach of the pitching staff. He's a position player who never coached before. And the primary touchstone of the pitching staff, Wes Johnson, ran a successful collegiate program. To suggest he doesn't know how to tailor approach to the individual doesn't make sense. I'm sure he doesn't get it right every time - no one does - but I'm not going to throw him out on his ass over one bad season. Next year will tell us a lot about this organization.

The Padres are focusing on Berríos now. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/07/jose-berrios-reportedly-primary-target-for-padres.html

Even accepting that this is true - and it's really not - "numbers" seemed to do pretty well for the Twins in 2019 and 2020.